A7 – Bocca d'Ombrone

The route begins with a magnificent straight stretch, squeezed between two wings of vegetation, in a piece of pine forest opened up by vast gaps already invaded by Mediterranean scrub. Soon the view opens on both sides over the plain, and up towards an immense sky. It is a landscape of strong colors made of grasses and low bushes, over which the eye extends up to the hills above Castiglione della Pescaia. In the humid seasons the plain is filled with freshwater ponds, the "chiari", much frequented by birds but which dry up when summer arrives. This is how almost the entire Maremma coast must have looked in the past. Here you often meet Maremma cows, and it really feels like you are inside a Macchiaioli painting.

The arrival at Bocca d'Ombrone, announced from afar by the hydraulic toll tower, is spectacular. Here the river and the sea meet, and a duel is fought that has lasted for three thousand years. Looking out over the water, you can witness the geology "live". Especially when the tide is receding, the clearer muddy water of the Ombrone stretches towards the open sea, where the sediments it carries in suspension will be distributed on the beaches by the coastal currents. The entire surrounding plain was formed in this way, through the deposition of river sediments. When the inland hills were deforested, the erosion of the slopes brought more sediments and the plain advanced, while when the hinterland became covered with woods again, it was the sea that took back the space that had been its. This is happening even now and here, between hydraulic defense works and collapsed embankments, you can see and touch all the precariousness of this disputed land.

Behind the toll booth, a short path leads to the birdwatching hut, in one of the favorite places for nature photographers who frequent the Maremma Park. Having gone back, we continue towards the sea, over a low, slightly green and slightly pink prairie of salicornia and limonium, plants that tolerate salt.

When you reach the sea and the road turns south running on a roadbed a few meters above the plain, the panorama opens up again, this time on the island of Giglio, on Monte Argentario, and on almost the entire Uccellina chain . At sunset, this is one of the most spectacular walks you can take in the Park.

As you move further away from Bocca d'Ombrone, the marshy prairie begins to give way to the pine forest, which you enter by crossing a small wooden bridge to take a very comfortable road that reaches the road a stone's throw from Marina di Alberese .